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Just wanted to give an update now that we are one month into school. Henry is thriving in his school environment. He is taking on the challenges with gusto and looking at all of it as a feat to conquer. We have no doubt he will do it. He often describes his days as " super fun and awesome but sometimes tiring from the brain-exploding math!" Learning math in French takes some time!
He has soccer practice on Wednesday afternoons and games some Saturdays. If they have a game, they hand the child a piece of paper at practice on Wed. There is no schedule for the season given out to parents. What?!? On the piece of paper it says the time and the town the game is in if it is an away game. Just to give you an idea it would be like getting a piece of paper in Greenville that said this Saturday 9:00am- Greer.
It cracked us up because the town of his last game had 4 stadiums. We went to three before we found it!
I am getting used to life as a French mom! I am cooking twice a day for lunch and dinner which I am starting to enjoy a bit. The main thing that I am adjusting to is the UNroutine. I am thankful to not be as busy or have as many things to accomplish here. However, tasks here take a great deal of time. It might take an entire morning to go pay a bill somewhere or a grocery trip could be 2 hours because I am trying to find items, translate ingredients, or fumbling through my French to order something at a counter. Although I have always loved a schedule, I am learning that it is going to look very different here and will have a lot less firm plans. This is very good for me! ☺️
This is a quote from an expat that stumbled across and am really trying to embrace this!
Gant is doing great at work. The first day of work here his boss told him he was leaving the company! So- it was a bit of a transition waiting for that boss to leave and to get a new one. He is settling into his position and still working hard on his French! He is enjoying long bike rides on the weekend with amazing mountain views and as ever he is the glue of our family as he leads us in these new endeavors!
Here are some random pics...
This will NEVER be out of stock here. This is sold in the pharmacies but I can't believe they even sell it. On the way to school this morning on the bus I looked out the window and counted 27 people smoking! This was at 8 am. Yuck!
The pharmacies were actually on strike yesterday ( everyone strikes over here all the time- buses, planes, trains etc). We had a wellcheck for Henry yesterday and his doctor spoke great English! Phew! She said the pharmacies were striking to try to prevent the government from providing medicine in grocery stores. The pharmacies completely have the market cornered here- you can't even buy Tylenol at a grocery store. You have to get anything like that solely at the pharmacies. We'll see how the strike went!
A French government building I saw on my walk the other day. It's beautiful but looks very ominous!
Groceries shipped from the American grocery store in Paris called Thanksgiving- those Wheat Thins were 9.90 Euro a box!!! But we were so excited to get these goodies!
This is our espresso machine. Just wanted you to see how tiny the cups are here. The big old mug I drink my coffee out of looks like it was made for a giant! Gant loves his little sips of coffe, but I need a big cup to hold all of the cream! I think I mentioned that milk is shelf stable here- so is cream! I just put it in the fridge when I get some from the store so it will "seem" like it had to be refrigerated!
